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Converting the climate-damaging CO2 into usable substances could offer an important approach to tackling the climate crisis. Promising methods have already been developed at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. A new discovery now brings industrial use within reach. Using special catalysts, Assoc. Prof. Wolfgang Schöfberger (JKU Institute of Organic Chemistry) developed a method years ago on a laboratory scale to convert CO2 into industrial alcohol.

"Chemistry is when it smokes and stinks" is an old saying. But green chemistry shows that things can be done differently . Green chemistry has been firmly established in research at TU Wien for more than a decade. With the inter-university Master's in Green Chemistry, it is now also gaining visibility in teaching.

Detection efficiency 1,000 times higher than conventional ion detectors due to high sensitivity An international research team led by quantum physicist Markus Arndt (University of Vienna) has achieved a breakthrough in the detection of protein ions: Due to their high energy sensitivity, superconducting nanowire detectors achieve almost 100% quantum efficiency and exceed the detection efficiency of conventional ion detectors at low energies by a factor of up to a 1,000.

For the first time, researchers at TU Wien have successfully observed the operating principle of so-called promoters in a catalytic reaction in real-time. These promoters play an important role in technology, but so far there is only limited understanding of how they work. Catalysts are essential for numerous chemical technologies, ranging from exhaust gas purification to the production of valuable chemicals and energy carriers.

One of the great unknowns in climate models is the behavior of certain gases that often smell strongly and cause water to condense. TU Wien (Vienna) is providing new insights into this. It has long been clear that man-made greenhouse gases are changing the climate - but there are still important details of climate change that are not well understood.

In physics, the complex processes in solids are often described in terms of quasiparticles. In ultracold quantum gases, these quasiparticles can be reproduced and studied. Now, for the first time, Innsbruck scientists led by Rudolf Grimm have been able to observe in experiments how Fermi polarons - a special type of quasiparticle - can interact with each other.

The DNA double helix is composed of two DNA molecules whose sequences are complementary to each other. The stability of the duplex can be fine-tuned in the lab by controlling the amount and location of imperfect complementary sequences. Fluorescent markers bound to one of the matching DNA strands make the duplex visible, and fluorescence intensity increases with increasing duplex stability.

By Philipp Jarke Photovoltaic cells made of organic materials are light and flexible, which is why they are considered very promising. An international research network led by TU Graz is now aiming to increase the stability of the materials. Solar cells made of silicon have been around for 70 years. Organic solar cells, on the other hand, are quite new, but open up new possibilities for emission-free electricity production.

Researchers from Austria and USA have designed a new type of quantum computer that uses fermionic atoms to simulate complex physical systems. The processor uses programmable neutral atom arrays and is capable of simulating fermionic models in a hardware-efficient manner using fermionic gates. The team led by Peter Zoller demonstrated how the new quantum processor can efficiently simulate fermionic models from quantum chemistry and particle physics.

Cluster of Excellence Materials for Energy Conversion & Storage In the Cluster of Excellence Materials for Energy Conversion & Storage (MECS) researchers from the Vienna University of Technology, IST Austria, the University of Innsbruck and the University of Vienna develop new technologies for efficient energy conversion and storage, in order to pave the way for a climate-neutral society.

Researchers at TU Graz have gained new insights into the functioning of a protein found in bacteria, whose enzymatic activity is activated by blue light. Light affects living organisms in many different ways: for example, plants orient their growth direction towards the sun, while circadian rhythms in humans are controlled by daylight.

Many biomarkers can be read from human sweat - a new biosensor for monitoring human metabolism takes advantage of this . A new and improved technology has been developed by researchers at Johannes Kepler University Linz together with colleagues from the USA. The revolutionary sensor technology could be of great importance for both disease diagnostics and fitness monitoring.

How active compounds affect RNA and thus the expression of genes is of great interest for the development of potential therapeutics. Innsbruck chemists have now used a method they recently developed to study the binding of the aminoglycoside Neomycin B to a so-called mRNA riboswitch. In important cellular processes, ribonucleic acids (RNA) specifically recognize certain proteins or small organic molecules as binding partners.

Researchers at TU Wien are developing a layered photocatalyst that can be used to produce hydrogen very efficiently from water. Finding sustainable and clean fuels is crucial in today's global energy and climate crisis. One promising candidate that is increasingly gaining relevance is hydrogen. However, today's industrial hydrogen production still has a considerable CO2 footprint, especially considering processes like steam reforming or non-sustainable electrolysis.

The friction in our joints is extremely low - how is that physically possible at all? Measurements at TU Wien provide explanations and ideas for new treatment methods . Friction and wear as an eternal nuisance - this is as familiar in technology as it is in medicine. Whether it's a manual transmission or a knee joint, you always want moving parts to slide over each other with as little friction as possible, so that energy expenditure and wear are kept to a minimum.

The research group led by chemist Thomas Magauer has accomplsihed a divergent strategy to synthesize nine complex natural compounds. The developed method requires significantly less time and results in a variety of compounds with different structures and biological properties. Chemical synthesis enables the construction of complex molecules and active drug substances.

A new speciation atlas helps researchers to get more accurate results and new discoveries. To unveil the previously elusive behavior and stability of complex metal compounds found in aqueous solutions called 'POMs', researchers at the University of Vienna have created a speciation atlas now published in Science Advances .

Single-atom vacancies in atomically thin insulators created in ultra-high vacuum Single photons have applications in quantum computation, information networks, and sensors, and these can be emitted by defects in the atomically thin insulator hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Missing nitrogen atoms have been suggested to be the atomic structure responsible for this activity, but it is difficult to controllably remove them.

At TU Wien (Vienna, scientists use microscopy techniques to observe chemical reactions on catalysts more precisely than before yielding a wealth of detail. This made clear why some effects cannot be predicted. Catalysts composed from tiny metal particles play an important role in many areas of technology - from fuel cells to production of synthetic fuels for energy storage.

Ants- brains are amazingly sophisticated organs that enable them to coordinate complex behaviour patterns such as the organisation of colonies. Now, a group of researchers led by Christian Gruber of MedUni Vienna's Institute of Pharmacology have developed a method that allows them to study ants- brain chemistry and gain insights into the insects- neurobiological processes.